I was delighted to be invited recently to join and contribute to several ongoing projects with Psychologists against austerity.

Psychologists Against Austerity is a national campaign that highlights the psychological costs of austerity policies. We take the position that the austerity policies are an ideological choice by the Government and not necessary or inevitable economic measures. Psychologists are often in a position to see the effects that social and economic changes have on people and communities. We draw attention to these human costs, which in the long-term will have additional social and economic repercussions.

It is our public and professional duty to speak out against the further implementation of austerity policies, as these have direct psychological impacts. We draw on academic research as well as our professional and personal experience to identify the damaging psychological costs of austerity measures, and we have produced a briefing paper detailing this research evidence…

Anyone who has read Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle” will know what a granfalloon is. The University of Chicago awarded Vonnegut a Master’s in anthropology for this work of satire, irony, black humor and parody. The term has since been adopted by market researchers and social scientists.

A granfalloon is a group of people who affect a proud shared identity or some cohesive purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless – associations and societies based on a shared but ultimately fabricated premise. Yet members often feel superior in some way to others. Granfalloons are powerful propaganda devices because they are easy to create and, once established, the granfalloon defines social reality and demarcates and maintains social identities.

Like “strivers”, “tax payers” and “hard working families.” Exclusive language and dominant, prejudiced narrative is an effective means of social control since it can be used to frame the interpretation of events. The…

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has won the poll in its annual hunt for the sexiest beard, My Hairy Valentine, by a significant margin.

He easily shaved second placed actor Idris Elba and third placed Dr Who (Peter Capaldi) in the on-line poll, which saw a record turn-out this year.

The BLF says that contrary to pogonophobic mythology many beards are soft, sexy and deeply mysterious.

The campaigners say that Jeremy Corbyn’s trademark beard is widely admired and the Valentine’s vote shows it also has the ‘WOW’ factor, possibly the first time a Labour leader has had this since Keir Hardie.

Previous winners of My Hairy Valentine have included actor George Clooney, who is currently…